Avian Flu Surveillance Project

Various ^ | May 9, 2005 | Vanity

[genefromjersey]

The reason I say that is the "miraculous" speed with which they managed to (a)develop,(b)produce a vaccine.

Bioweapons are useful IF you have a vaccine on hand.

[EBH]

Chinese pig disease toll hits 152

Friday, July 29, 2005 Posted: 1651 GMT (0051 HKT)


Pigs are thought to be the source of the mystery illness.YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

China
World Health Organization (WHO)
Animals
Health
or Create Your Own
Manage Alerts | What Is This? HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- The number of people infected by what Chinese authorities believe is a pig-borne disease in Sichuan province has risen by 21 to 152, the Hong Kong Health Department said, citing information from the mainland government.

Concern in Hong Kong grew on Friday after the city's government said that a local man had recently contracted the same disease. The city of nearly seven million people on China's southern coast gets most of its food from the mainland.

The 26-year-old interior decorator infected with Streptococcus suis had not been to China recently and had no contact with pigs or raw pork, the government said in a statement late on Thursday.

He was admitted to hospital on July 5 and discharged on July 12. Authorities are investigating how he contracted the disease.

Nine other people in Hong Kong have also contracted the same disease since May last year.

Chinese officials have insisted that the outbreak could be controlled and agreed to a Hong Kong government request to send a team of experts to Sichuan province to join the investigation.

China's Minister of Health Gao Qiang arrived in Sichuan on Thursday to inspect the prevention and control of the pig-borne epidemic, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Authorities in Sichuan suspended exports of chilled and frozen pork to Hong Kong earlier this week as a precaution, but the city's government has insisted there is still no evidence to support a ban on pork imports from the region, angering many legislators.

The victims in China were infected with the bacteria from slaughtering, handling or eating infected pigs, authorities have said.

The official Xinhua news agency said that 31 people had died from the disease while another 27 were in critical condition.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that clinical diagnosis of the disease in Sichuan seems to be consistent with past outbreaks, but admitted it was puzzled by the high number of people falling ill.

Streptococcus suis is endemic in swine in most pig-rearing countries in the world but human infections have been relatively rare.

Although China's state media has said no human-to-human infections have been found in Sichuan, the death toll is considered unusually high.

The disease is not known to have ever been passed between humans, but scientists fear it could mutate into a strain that could easily pass among people. Compounded with its deadliness, such a bug could unleash an epidemic, killing many people.

The high mortality rate and reports that many of the victims died within 24 hours of showing symptoms have led some experts to wonder if it is swine flu at all.

[little jeremiah]

I am fully prepared to bestow whatever information I have for the benefit of anyone interested.

BTW, I also have quite a bit of info on the hazards of chlorine...it's pretty bad for anyone with asthma or proneness to breathing problems, children and babies, and a lot of contact either skin or respitory can cause all manner of problems.

One of the reasons I put together the info about essential oils as anti-septics is because of my intense dislike of chlorine.

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for your input. Your experience with pigs and knowledge of this strep suis helps, because it's first hand. This just doesn't sound like strep suis to me--not the right kind of response for something like that, if I'm reading correctly. It just doesn't make sense to "register" pigs, frankly.

I'm waiting to hear what Kelly_2000 knows about it too, if anything, her field is virology...

[conservativecorner]

I agree 100% with your observations. This could get really ugly especially in third world countries. You have to know that N. Korea's answer to this is lining people up and killing them. Scary stuff!

[Iowa Granny]

It just doesn't make sense to "register" pigs, frankly.

Actually registering the herds makes sense. Within the past 5 years Iowa has been irradicated of Pseudorabies, and the first step was testing each herd. And then IDing the herd as to Positive or Negative.

Each pig wasn't tested, but a "Representative Sampling" was done. 2 of every 10 pigs, or some other ratio (I don't know the actual ratio, I'm just giving an example for those who don't understand the "Sampling" lingo)

Once a herd was identified as positive, then innoculations were ordered. It took years to get rid of the stuff. It was an airborne virus.

So sending 50,000 people out to identify the pigs is a possibility. The thing I'm questioning is the term 'identify'. It's my guess this doesn't mean they're going to put an ID tag in each animals ear, or a tatoo on their back. I'm thinking they will pull some representative samples like I describe above.

Conception to Birth for swine is 3 Months, 3 Weeks and 3 Days. So these 50,000 people will no sooner get done and they'll have to go back and start all over again if they're going to be serious about this.

[Judith Anne]

Okay, then that makes sense. Thanks.

[Judith Anne]

Okay, it looks like someone's going to have to take the bull by the horns and start this Preparedness thread.

I'm going to do it, now. I'll make the first post with my elderberry recipe.

2ndreconmarine, all, please post your questions and answers there.

Thanks, everyone.

[redgolum]

Here is a sight to buy some of the N95 rated masks (we use them in hog barns back home)

http://www.gemplers.com/a/shop/list.asp?UID=200507292118338285991451&SKW=2S5RESPN

My father buys them by the gross. Gemplers has good prices.
Don't get them from the big sites that cater to pharma, the mark up is more.

N95 is a NIOSH test if I remember right, it means it filters 95% of the particulate matter. Most of the masks are of the two strap kind. This type of mask will not protect against any type of toxic fumes, but will filter out dust and such very well. I grew up wearing the things.

Some basic things to remember. Do not have any facial hair while wearing them. Also, make sure to test the fit before hand. As I posted earlier, there are some faces that just don't fit any size of mask. Realize that if the flu hits the outside of the mask will be very "hot" if you are around any suspected cases. When disposing of the mask, make sure you don't touch the outside or accidentally get anything on your face. That is pretty easy to do, but it takes a few times to figure out how.

If you are buying for the whole family get a few different sizes. Unfortunately, they don't work that well for young kids (faces are to small). This type of mask is a once use type of thing. Don't try to reuse them (if at all possible), as they get harder to breath through the longer they are worn.

If you are sweating alot, the mask will get we and be harder to breath through. This will cause some people to panic and/or get dizzy.

One last thing. If you get the type with the exhale valve, check the valve before going anyplace suspect. Sometimes the little rubber flapper will get stuck open.

Should I post this on the other thread also?

[redgolum]

Chlorine can be nasty if not used right. Inside, be careful that the solution is diluted down before going to a place with poor ventilation.

Sodium Hypo-chlorate is the name of the actual chemical in bleach. Great stuff for kill bacteria, but it will irritate the heck out of your lungs. We use a lot of it at work, and you get used to it. At low concentrations, it isn't that bad for adults. Just keep it off your skin (will dry it out very fast at low concentrations), and out of your eyes. I don't have the mixing ratio's handy but they are on the net.

Kids will be more susceptible to the fumes.

[ex-Texan]

This information from Beijing sounds bogus to me. I'm not a scientist but it is common knowledge that bacterial infections are very often secondary to viral infections. Patty Doyle is openly speculating that China may have been playing with genetic mutations of H5N1 or trying to create a vaccine. Very strange rumors are abounding on fringe web sites (Rense).

From Patricia Doyle, Ph.D.:

It is so difficult to know what is really happening in China. If only we could get samples from both human and porcine cases we would have a better idea on etiologic agent or coinfection agents.

I noted one of the symptoms in porcine cases was foaming at the mouth. I thought that so odd and it sounded like rabies.

Bacteria can be coinfections with viral illnesses, or as a result of depressed immune function from viral illness.

We saw some of the SARS and even H5N1 cases develop bacterial pneumonia. Some cases of H5N1 developed bacterial meningitis and some developed viral meningitis.

China is definitely hiding something and that is why the complete news blackout on the diseases and that is why some of the research labs there were shut down. It is the main reason why NO samples of cases are allowed to be studied either by Chinese researchers or scientists abroad. Only certain GOVERNMENT research labs can research these illnesses.

They have had a "Chinese Plum Island" boo boo or their vaccine caused the outbreak. This is not typical Asian H5N1 or typical Strep Suis type 2 pig bacteria. (Of that I am sure!)

One of the promed posts described the administering of H5N1 vaccine by putting it into water sources, or by aerosol which would enable better and more complete dispersal and would better distribute the vaccine between birds, humans and mammals. Maybe they sprayed poison, disease without realizing it. Some of the vaccine was described as activated. In other words they took the 2004 H5N1, cloned and mutated it to produce the vaccine.

Reverse Genetics:

The experimental procedure that begins with a cloned segment of DNA, or a protein sequence, and uses this knowledge to introduce programmed mutations (through directed mutagenesis) back into the genome in order to investigate gene and protein function.

What if they gave the vaccine to pigs? What if the mutations caused the virus to jump to man? What if the pig bacteria transmitted to humans or became part of the new mutation? What if the new flu strain to be incorporated in the vaccine turned out to cause the flu, the new mutated version?

I still wonder about "foaming at the mouth?"

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/focuson/flu/illustration s/reassort_rev/reassortmentVreversegenetics.htm

Focus on the Flu

Reassortment vs. Reverse Genetics

A comparison of the age-old method of making a flu vaccine with a new, more efficient technique.

Reassortment

View Reassortment Illustration showing how researchers use reassortment, which is the swapping and mixing of gene segments between two different viral strains inside a fertilized chicken egg, to create a new vaccine. High resolution illustration is available for downloading

Reverse Genetics

View Reverse Genetics Illustration showing how researchers use reverse genetics to custom-make a flu strain to be incorporated into a vaccine.

High resolution illustration is available for downloading

Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board.

[redgolum]

That is what my Dad remembers as well.

We never had pseudo, but were one of the first place to get hit with the "Mystery Disease" (paravaro?) back in 95. That scared the local vets so bad that we had guys for UNL, Iowa State, and the USDA all over trying figure out what it was.

They also took a representative sample of the surrounding farms. Lucky for them, it wasn't airborne. Dad had to get out of the hog business for awhile.

The 50,000 people screams something else to me. You don't need that many people to canvass an area for hog sampling. This is something more serious.

[LurkingSince'98]

Judith Anne

please add me to your ping list

Regards,
Lurking'

[bitt]

thanks for the updates and the pings. Scary stuff with China.

[Iowa Granny]

marking

[Oorang]

I'm not saying what is going on in China, or elsewhere, is engineered. I have no idea what is going on. I just thought this was an interesting article.

______________________________

Top U.S. Disease Fighters Warn of New Engineered Pathogens but Call Bioweapons Doomsday Unlikely

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The top officials charged with protecting the United States against a biological attack yesterday played down concerns that a new agent could exterminate the human race but warned that the threat of new, engineered pathogens remains serious (see GSN, July 13).

“As the power of biological science and technology continues to grow, it will become increasingly possible that we will face an attack with a pathogen that has been deliberately engineered for increased virulence,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said in prepared testimony to the House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack.

Concern has risen in Washington in recent years that a terrorist group or unfriendly country could employ increasingly available bioengineering know-how to design a new agent to be particularly potent or to resist existing antibiotics.

Agents could be made more virulent through “resistance to one or more antibiotic or antiviral drugs, increased infectiousness or pathogenicity or, in the somewhat longer term, a new virulent pathogen made by combining genes from more than one organism,” Fauci said. Development of therapies and vaccines with broad applications and more research into human immune function are under way as part of the effort to counter the threat, he said.

Asked by Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) whether a pathogen could be engineered that would be virulent enough to “wipe out all of humanity,” Fauci and other top officials at the hearing said such an agent was technically feasible but in practice unlikely.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said a deadly agent could be engineered with relative ease that could spread throughout the world if left unchecked, but that the outbreak would be unlikely to defeat countries’ detection and response systems.

“The technical obstacles are really trivial,” Gerberding said. “What’s difficult is the distribution of agents in ways that would bypass our capacity to recognize and intervene effectively.”

Fauci said creating an agent whose transmissibility could be sustained on such a scale, even as authorities worked to counter it, would be a daunting task.

“Would you end up with a microbe that functionally will … essentially wipe out everyone from the face of the Earth? … It would be very, very difficult to do that,” he said.

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2005_7_29.html#5C4288CA

[EBH]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453905/posts

Very interesting post since some here in this online think tank already came to this conclusion!

[EBH]

Follow some of the embedded links.

Commentary
.
Fatal Infections in Sichuan China Due to Ebola-SZ77?

Recombinomics Commentary
July 24, 2005


The virus currently circulating in ZiYang SiCuhan is thought to be a strain of Ebola. However, both authorities and the press have been prohibited from alluding it to be so. Even the use of the word "Ebola" has been banned.

Although minimal information has been released, many Chinese believe that the virus circulating in SiChuan is the EB-SZ77 strain of Ebola that first emerged in ShenZhen , between 19 - 27 May this year. However, what is puzzling is that this strain has evolved very rapidly - it can now be transmitted by 3rd party, unlike the other strains which are only blood borne.

The above comments are form a translation of a boxun report indicating that the deaths in Ziyang, southeast of Chengdu in Sichuan province is due to a rapidly evolving strain of Ebola, EB-SZ77. Earlier reports by boxun had described a number of Ebola strains in China. In the earlier report, all isolates were said to be transmitted via blood. However, EB-SZ77 was capable of transmission to birds.

If true, all of this would be cause for concern, H5N1 has been reported in pigs in Indonesia, so infection of swine in Suchuan would be possible in view of its proximity to Qinghai Lake and the recent bird flu outbreak among migratory water fowl.. Moreover, the unprecedented die-off of birds at Qingahi Lake due to H5N1 infections raises concerns about a catastrohic spread of H5N1,

An 18 nucleotide region of H5 is found in the Ebola env gene, signaling the exchange of genetic information between H5N1 and Ebola (the sequence is specific for H5N1 isolates). Variations in sequences between Ebola or Marburg strains has been noted and Ebola like other viruses can evolve rapidly via recombination.

Isolation and sequencing of the virus causing the deaths in Sichuan Province would be useful.

[Gritty]

Here is a more recent, related article than the above post by EBH - today, if fact...

Ebola Recombinant Linked to Mystery Illness in Sichuan China?

Recombinomics Commentary
July 30, 2005


D: "It's alright. We ran tests on those samples and isolated the SZ77++A3231 virus."

I: "What is this SZ77++A3231 virus?"

D: "This is a strain of the Ebola virus."

I: "Would you like to comment about it?"

D: "It's rather impossible to totally explain it."

I: "I can understand so, but why is the term "less-infectious" always affixed to our version of the Ebola virus?"

D: "There are 2 reasons for doing so. First, to reduce panic among the people should it ever leak. And second, the Ebola virus has evolved in China. Re-combination has been detected. Most prominently at the portion which determines its effect on humans (very technical description, I can't describe it. sorry.). Also, abrupt breaks in the sequencing were detected, leading to changes in the incubation period. (Or possibly "changes in the incubation period were detected")

I: "How were these viruses classified then? / Could you elaborate more about the various strains?"

D: "Previously, strains of Ebola in China always had the EBO prefix. Subsequently following information leaks, the classification method was changed. We stopped using the EBO prefix. Instead, coupled with the discovery that the virus had become more virulent and lethal, we re-named the strains according to the placed where they were first discovered. For example, the strain in June became the SZ77++A3231. Sometimes, we don't even use their place of discovery, instead directly naming it the ++A3231."

I: "In that way, the Ebola virus wouldn't even be brought into the picture."

D: "Precisely, viruses such as the Ebola are national secrets."

The above comments by a physician involved in testng samples from patients in the mysterious swine outbreak in Sichuan indicate that one of the agents isolated is a recombinant Ebola virus originally isolated from Shenzen.  Prior reports had listed the names and characteristics of various Ebola isolates and EB-SZ-277 was capable of infecting birds.  SZ277++A3231 is a recombinant version of SZ-277 isolated from a patient.  The discussion indicates China has an active Ebola project and the virus is rapidly evolving via recombination. It was not clear from earlier reports if the agent was isolated and sequenced, but this interview leaves little doubt that both isolation and sequencing of Ebola is quite active.  It is unclear if the recombination is related to the region of identity between Ebola and H5N1. Ebola is considered a state secret, so there are no reports of the virus or availability of virus or sequences.

The interview also indicates that the streptococcus suis is not the cause of the illness.  It is present in pigs and is merely activated by infectious agents, which include Ebola, plague, and an un-named virus which is considered "dangerous".  The emphasis is on the bacteria because it can produce similar symptoms.  The symptoms of the patients match pandemic flu of 1918, and H5N1 can produce such symptoms.

The interview, if accurate, would support the role of agents other than the bacteria, in the spread or progression of the illness.  Streptococcus Suis does not produce the high case fatality rate, and can be treated with antibiotics, as can plague.  The high case fatality rate also supports the involvement of a virus.  The proximity to Qinghai Lake keeps H5N1bird flu and migratory birds on the short list of explanations for the rapid spread of the fatal disease that is resistant to antibiotic treatment.
...(end of Commentary)

This gets more scary by the day. Lord only knows where this is heading, but it certainly is looking more ominous than one can possibly imagine!

This article is also cirulating on FR by the same title thread, but I thought it would be good to post it here where all the list can see it.